Filmmaker Oliver Stone admitted he struggles to understand Scottish accents as he collected an honorary degree from Edinburgh University.

The Oscar-winning director of Born on the Fourth of July was awarded the doctorate "in recognition of his prominent and politically engaging career in film".

The 70-year-old was accompanied at the ceremony by his wife, Chong Stone.

Afterwards, he told STV News: "Scottish movies have a problem with their accents - it's hard to understand sometimes.

"If you could level out the English a little bit more it would be better. Good actors, yes, I just don't understand what they're saying."

Stone has won three Oscars, the first for best adapted screenplay as writer of Midnight Express in 1978, and the other two as director of Vietnam War dramas Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July.

He received his latest award on the day universities across Scotland recognise famous entertainers.

Strictly Come Dancing judge and former ballerina Darcey Bussell received an honorary degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.

Bussell became a "doctor of dance" during a ceremony which also recognised Irish composer Micheal O Suilleabhain and Dame Evelyn Glennie, the Scottish virtuoso percussionist who has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12.